Jay Manuel to serve as 'Canada's Next Top Model' new host

By Reality TV World staff, 11/01/2006

After appearing on all seven editions of America's Next Top Model, Top Model makeup artist and photo director Jay Manuel will be taking on a new Top Model responsibility -- hosting Canada's Next Top Model.

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Manuel will host the upcoming second edition of Top Model's Canadian spinoff, replacing Tricia Helfer, the Battlestar Galactica actress and former Canadian model who hosted the show's first season.

Canada's Next Top Model, broadcast by Canada's Citytv network, premiered late this spring. CNTM's July 2006 first season finale ended with Andrea Muizelaar, a 19-year-old cashier from Whitby, Ontario, being crowned the reality competition show's inaugural winner. Although Helfer hosted Canada's Next Top Model's first edition, Manuel -- a Toronto native -- appeared in several of the eight-episode show's episodes, including serving as the finale's guest judge.

According to Manuel -- who will still remain part of Top Model's American edition -- a desire to bring a "natural synergy" between the two editions is the reason Top Model's creators decided to make him the Canadian show's new host. "If you look at Canada, it's such an international melting pot," Manuel told the Canadian Press on Tuesday. "And one of the focuses was, 'Let's bring this international flair to 'Canada's Next Top Model' and really build that whole brand here in Canada."

Last month, Stacey McKenzie, a model who served as one of Canada's Next Top Model's first season judges, appeared in an episode of America's Next Top Model's currently airing seventh edition.

Canada's Next Top Model's second edition is expected to premiere in Spring 2007. Applications can be downloaded from the show's citytv.com website. All applications must be received by December 15, 2006.